A device such as an imaging device or a portable phone outputs and provides a picture to a user. For this purpose, such a device is provided with a display device. A liquid crystal display device commonly referred to as a “Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)” is configured in a flat shape and widely used in television sets, computer or notebook monitors, portable terminals or the like as a display device. As elements such as thin film transistors or organic light emitting diodes are developed, such flat display devices have become thinner and implement a sharper picture.
Recently, portable terminals have developed to provide multimedia services through mobile communication networks. Accordingly, in order to provide a larger picture, the portable terminals also use a display device capable of outputting a larger picture. As the display device is enlarged in a portable terminal for which miniaturization and lightening are essentially used, efforts to reduce the thickness of the portable terminals have continued in order to secure portability.
If a display device is flexible, it will be possible to carry the display device in a flexed, folded, or rolled state. Thus, the flexible display device will be capable of greatly contributing to securing portability of a portable terminal while enlarging the screen of the portable terminal. Accordingly, research to make a display device equipped with a flexible display panel commercially available is recently being strengthened.
In configuring a flexible display device, it will be necessary to arrange, for example, various circuit boards, the display device, and integrated circuit chips in such a manner that flexibility can be maintained. For example, even if a display panel is flexible, the display will not be substantially flexible if the circuit boards and the integrated circuit chips, each of which has a considerable surface area, are not flexible when they are laminated on the display panel. Accordingly, if it is desired to implement a flexible display device, the circuit boards laminated on the flexible display panel should also be flexible, and the integrated circuit chips should be fabricated in a sufficiently small size and arranged not to affect the deformation of the display panel.
Further, when designing the sizes and arrangements of the circuit boards and the integrated circuit chips to satisfy such conditions, the display panel should be prevented from being damaged. For example, when the display device is deformed into a flexed or rolled state, it is obvious that in the laminated structure, the spaces between the display panel and each of the circuit boards and integrated circuit chips will be narrowed compared to the spaces in the state where the display device is not deformed. Accordingly, depending on the degree of deformation of the display device, the integrated circuit chips may interfere with and come into contact with the display panel causing damage to the display panel. Further, in view of the characteristics of the flexible display device, it is obvious that the display device may be locally deformed by, for example, an external shock. Such a local deformation may cause the integrated circuit chips to come into contact with the display device and cause damage to it.